In The Slave, Walker has to come to terms with what being a black man in racist America means for him-for his marriage, for his children, for his psyche, and for his intellectual pursuits. The play posits that attempts to better race relations, no matter how well-intentioned, are ultimately a doomed endeavor-much like the cursed vessel. The title of the play itself is an allusion to the exceedingly cynical outlook on the matter of race relations: it is a reference to The Flying Dutchman, the legendary ghost ship cursed to sail the seas and never find a port. Jones has a very deeply pessimistic outlook on race relations, suggesting that if African-Americans take a more passive and peaceful approach in dealing with racist structures and systems, white supremacy will still eventually find a way to impose itself upon them and ultimately destroy them such is the case with Clay and Lula. It is clear that race relations are the main theme of the play.
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